Is Nolan Right Man for Isles?

There have been renewed indications that Ted Nolan's future with the New York Islanders is not exactly written in stone. After 1.5 seasons as the coach of the Isles, most would have assumed Nolan would be re-inked by the Isles, especially after leading the Isles to 7th in the East at the all-star break. But then the wheels came undone and now the legacy of the Isles' 2007-2008 season won't be about how many points the Isles missed the playoffs by, as it will be about how close the Isles are to landing a top drafting position. And so the question remains as to whether Nolan is responsible for where the Isles currently sit today. My answer: Not entirely.

The argument FOR Ted Nolan - Those who will vouch for Nolan will tell you that he is a players' coach--that his players will go to the ends of the earth for him. They will tell you that Nolan can get the most out of average players. Last season Viktor Kozlov had his most successful season under Nolan, notching 25 goals and finally showing signs of his true potential. Other players like Jason Blake had a career season under Nolan, as Blake reached 40 goals and won him self a mammoth $25 million contract. This season Josef Vasicek proved he can provide more than merely eating 4th line minutes. Nolan proved last season he could take a team that was predicted to finish near last in the league into the playoffs, while giving the top team in the conference a good scare in the first round.

The Nolan advocates will tell you that Nolan is the right man for the Isles's bench considering the lack of talent that has surrounded the Isles organization--that Nolan will get the most out of whoever Garth Snow can muster up each and every summer. They will also convey that the downfall of the 2007-2008 Isles was out of Nolan's hands: (1) His all-star goaltender (DP) injured his hip at the all-star game, (2) His best puck moving defenseman (Campoli) suffered a season ending injury, (3) His defensive crew (Martinek, Witt, Gervais, Campoli) has suffered numerous injuries all season, and (4) He was given a team with simply not enough talent to score goals on a regular basis. They will point out that with out Ted Nolan, this franchise might be much worse off than is imaginable.

The argument AGAINST Ted Nolan - Those who will tell you that Ted Nolan is the wrong man for the Isles' bench will tell you a completely different story. I tend to agree with those individuals so I will speak from that perspective. We will concede that Nolan might be a good motivator at times, but we will highlight that Nolan's lack of understanding of some basic hockey knowledge is a flaw that cannot be surmounted. We will tell you that Nolan is a man resistant to change--that he will continue to repeat mistakes at the expense of winning.

We would cite examples: (1) Mike Dunham roughly one year ago, who had proved to the world that he could not compete in the NHL, yet was still allowed to continuously play while singlehandedly losing games for the Isles while an anxious Dubie sat on the sidelines, (2) A PP this season that has never shown consistent success, yet still comprised the same strategies and the same players for months at a time, (3) A horrendous 5-3 strategy involving perimeter passing and outside shooting that has singlehandedly cost the Isles points this season, (4) An obvious favoritism toward veterans like Silinger and Hunter on the PP, Comrie and Guerin always on the first line, and selective punishment for poor play (see MAB's 20 games in the pressbox v. Comrie's 0 games), (5) A refusal to admit that his trust and faith in Chris Simon was misplaced after a 2nd horrific on-ice incident in less than 20 games.

We will tell you that with the likes of Comeau, Tambellini, Nielson, and Okposo, the Isles are an up and coming team that will rely primarily on younger players (see aso Gervais and Campoli on the blue line). We will also remind you that the Isles will have 4 top picks in the first two rounds of this year's draft, and that the Isles need a coach who will not only motivate them to play as hard as humanly possible, but one who will also teach them how to play the game and give them the confidence to do so. We will tell you that Nolan was just what we needed this year and last, but it's time to part ways and move on.

What will Garth Snow do? Is it even Garth Snow's decision to make? What would you do?

Only Shadows in the Sunshine State

As the 2007-2008 season continues to unravel for the New York Islanders, there isn't much the loyal Islander fan can look forward to. More DP puck-handling gaffs? More ice time for the Bridgeport Islanders? Jon Sim's unlikely return? Like I said, there is not too much to look forward to.

Regarding the play of Rick DiPietro...Where in the beginning of the season DP was a cautious puck-handler, mostly making the right choices behind the net, last night's game was the epitome of the great flaw to DP's goaltending career. What should be his most dependable weapon has once again become his Achilles heel. When DP is making sound decisions, he is communicating with his defenseman, starting the breakout, and keeping the opposing team's forecheck in line. On the contrary, when DP is making mindless decisions, he makes poor passes, he give the opponent's multiple cracks at an empty net, and he disrupts the flow of his team's defensive game. When DP sits back in his goal and does the simple thing like stopping the puck, he can be one of the most effective goaltenders in the NHL. But the DP of last night looked like he belonged back in the minor leagues.

Now in all fairness to DP, he is probably playing with an ongoing injury--probably whatever he worsened during the NHL all-star skills competition. That, in addition to playing behind one of the worst teams in the NHL, would certainly frustrate DP and make him want to leave his crease to play the puck more. Some are now willing to question DP's 15 year contract based on what has transpired in a few week interval. However, I am not one of those persons.

DP has proved to me that he is more than capable of leading this team to a successful season. The first half of this season (prior to all the defensive injury woes, his own injury,and when the Isles were still competitive), DP was in top form. I don't think it's fair to quit on the franchise player when every other player on the Isles has failed to adequately support him. That said, DP still needs to be tamed and the over-handling of the puck did not serve the Isles well last night.

Regarding the Isles' management...This is not going to be the type of season where we can question specific in-game decisions and certain missed chances that led to our place in the standings. However, this is the type of season where we must question those in charge and the overall strategy they have in place to bring the Stanley Cup back to Long Island. Garth Snow and Ted Nolan, two men who were highly regarded for the job they did last season, have taken enormous steps backwards over the course of a single season. Ted Nolan has developed an unwillingness to change--his line combinations, his apportionment of ice time, his power play strategy--are just a few examples of a stubborn coach letting his ego override what's best for his team. For example, Ted Nolan tells us that Mike Comrie is a top-line player and that Trent Hunter is a tremendous asset and that they should receive the big minutes. Yet when Comrie/Hunter fail, not only does Nolan refuse to admit he was mistaken, but he also refuses to give those minutes to more deserving players. Over the last 13 games, the Isles' PP is 4 for its last 55, or a measly 7%. During that stretch, and we have not seen or heard of any change on the PP strategy or the PP personnel. And what does Snow do in response to all of this? He refuses to fire Isles' PP coach Gallant and rewards Comrie and Hunter with new contracts.

I hope Garth Snow has learned a lesson this season. This nonsense notion that a team of "Ted Nolan players" will prevail over the more skilled teams has no merit. A coal miner who works all day will never have the IQ to design a space satellite. Along those lines, a team of hard-working unskilled hockey players will never have the ability to compete in the NHL. Moreover, this group has gone through numerous stretches of lazy inattentive play, which is the opposite of a "Nolan player." At this point in the season, we need to see more of guys like Comeau, Tambellini, Walter, and Colliton. They are more skilled than the Hilberts, Hunters and Parks on the current team. Yes, there are going to be periods of spotty play as these kids better learn the game, but they have more future upside than every last member of the Isles forward unit. In addition, I wouldn't bring Okposo up into this mess either and spoil his NHL debut on a gutless team that has lost interest in the current season.

Regarding the defensemen...There is merit to the idea that the Isles season has unfolded partially due to the loss of so many defensemen. Currently, Campoli is out for the year, Sutton is on the shelf for weeks, and Gervais, Martinek, and Witt are and have been banged up. Aaron Johnson is not a capable NHL defenseman nor is Rob Davison or Bryan Berard. Next year I hope Snow adds one major defenseman along the lines of a Wade Redden. A strong UFA in addition to Witt, Martinek, Sutton, Campoli, Gervais, and Meyer not only is sufficient, but is large enough to allow the Isles to move a Campoli/Gervais for some offensive help.

Regarding the offense...The Isles should have parted with the likes of Satan and Fedotenko. While they may not have fetched high round picks, any return would be more helpful to the Isles future than those players' services this season. This again goes towards Snow's inability to characterize and judge the value in the market. He made low-ball offers to the top UFAs last season, and I'm sure he low-balled offers at the trading deadline a few weeks ago. We will know soon whether Snow learned from his lesson.


All in all, the Isles need to overhaul the strategy we see on the ice. We need newer younger players, who play an uptempo style with lots of scoring chances. The leftover aging vets routine has put Isles fans to sleep over the course of a 82 game season. Presently, I find it extremely hard to sit through an entire Isles game, mostly because the Isles try to put the other teams to sleep in hopes of winning games 1-0, 2-1, etc. If that method were working, I'm sure I would have less of a problem with it. But that method can't possibly work when we have no one capable of creating scoring chances on a consistent basis and no one willing to pay the price to collect the unskilled goal. Out of all the Isles forwards coming into this season (Guerin, Comrie, Hunter, Vasicek, Tank, Hilbert, Park, Silinger) there isn't one player I would miss if they were not to return next season. We will however be stuck with Guerin, Comrie, Park, and Silinger, but if Snow can replace the others with some faster younger players, the Isles just might be watchable next season. And it doesn't hurt also that we are creeping slowly toward solidifying a spot in the bottom-5 of the league and a crack at the first overall pick.

Video Gaming Nolan

Sometimes I feel like Nolan is completely mindless out there—as if his coaching decisions were based on a video game’s knowledge of the Isles. Hear me out…

1. In a video game, the PP lines and PK lines are predetermined. It doesn’t matter how many times a strategy fails or the players fail, the game still rolls out the same lines with the same strategy. Sounds a lot like Nolan.

2. In a video game, a player’s ability and skill will stay the same throughout a season. A Blake Comeau video game version could never be more than a 4th line player. However in real life, kids mature and improve and make a case to be considered for top line minutes. Yet Nolan still treats Comeau like a scrappy 4th liner.

3. Along the same lines, players’ abilities can deteriorate over a season in real life (although this doesn’t happen in a video game)—take Hunter for example. In a video game, Hunter (a former 25 goal man) would see top line minutes and ample power play time. Yet in real life, Hunter has lost his scoring touch and is now more of a checking line winger. Yet Nolan continues to employ his video game logic and continues to roll Hunter on the PP over guys like Comeau, Bergenheim, Tambellini, all who are young creative players that could help us score.

4. Lastly, in a video game, you have a depth chart, so if a defenseman goes down, the next defenseman in line will be called up. For the Isles, that defenseman in Aaron Johnson. At the beginning of the season, AJ was the 7th d-man waiting in the wings. Now it seems no matter what happens, AJ will always be the next man in, just as a video game would always insert the 7th defenseman. However, in reality, Drew Fata has proven to be a more effective choice yet is still further down than AJ.

My point is that many times throughout this season I have seen Nolan take the easy way out—making the mindless decision. His ability to get the most out of mediocre players is a great asset for a coach. His teams work hard and they mostly like playing for him. However, there comes a time when some basic hockey understanding needs to be considered. It’s pathetic that I would trust every AHL team’s 5 on 3 ability over that of the Isles.

Tambellini Gives Isles Life

In what could have been the final nail in the coffin on a downward spiraling stretch run, Jeff Tambellini came through in the clutch to give the Isles a much needed shootout win over the rival Rangers. In the 6th round of shooters, Tambellini made one quick move in the slot and unleashed a wicked wrist shot over Henrik Lundqvist's glove. It was nice to see Tambellini have such an impact on a game, and maybe now he will fall towards Ted Nolan's favorite list. Also, tot to go unmentioned should be Bill Guerin's tying shootout goal in round 2. I found Guerin's attempt to be a wise veteran's move, going for what the goaltender gives him. Lundqvist is so quick laterally you almost have to shoot--and the 5-hole was staring Guerin in the face.

The Kid-line - Again I thought the Kid-line was the most effective throughout the game. Comeau and Tambellini, and even Coliton easily generated the most scoring chances of all the Isles' lines last night. The problem? They saw NO time in overtime. I don't understand how you keep your best and quickest line all night on the side when the game is on the line. ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S 4 on 4 and the quicker players are the most dangerous. At one point last night during the OT, Nolan had AJ, Berard, Hunter, and Satan out there together. Does he want to lose? If you want to sit back and force the shootout that's one thing, but if you're going for the W, then Comeau/Tambs should have got a chance to win it.

The PP - One word describes the Isles PP - dreadful. Now not only are the Isles unable to score on the PP, but they now are prone to at least one short-handed goal per game. I think that's 3 SHGs against in 4 games with out MAB. Where the PP should be a means to score, it is now at the point where the Isles should consider declining a PP opportunity because it's more likely they will be scored upon. I have asked all season and I ask again: How does Gallant still have a job with this team?

Shootout - I was very perplexed with the choice of shootout contestants by Nolan last night. In my book, the #1 Isles shootout shooter has to be Miro Satan. The guy is about .500 for his career and has the 3rd most shootout goals in NHL history. Yet somehow, Nolan found 3 better options. Richard Park has ONE shootout goal in his career, and last time he dipsee doodled away and didn't even get a shot on goal. And last night, he looked over matched against Lundqvist. Hunter, who is usually not a good choice, was a fair choice last night being that I thought it would take a good shot to beat Lundqvist. Hunter does have a good shot even though it has failed him and the Isles this season. The 3rd spot should have gone to either Guerin or Comrie, where last night Guerin was the right choice again because Guerin as the superior shot. The top-3 should now be Satan, Tambellini, and Comrie/Guerin. I am spending so much time on the shootout order because it can be the determinative as to whether we make the playoffs. I'd hate to have lost last night with Miro on the sidelines. If you're going to go down, you better go down with your top players.

Dubie - Dubie played a good enough game in regulation to get the win. He wasn't spectacular and often looked uncomfortable, but he did make a tremendous save on Shanahan's breakaway and his rebound attempt. However, Dubie stole the show in the shootout. Shanahan has been an automatic goal, yet Dubie came way out and gloved one of the best wrist shots of all time. He stopped 5 out of 6 to lead the Isles to the win.

DP - Many have pondered whether the Isles are hiding an ongoing DP injury, and in all likelihood the answer is yes. Anyone who heard him during the skills competition knew that he was seriously hurt--and I'm amazed he actually played in the game the next day. DP was too good towards the beginning of the year to simply become a mediocre goaltender now. On that note, if he's actually hurt, then Dubie better be in goal tomorrow. If DP actually is healthy, then you have to go back to him for tomorrow's rematch.